It’s a stylistic trick used by Amos to divide his book into its main parts by returning at the end to some thought to which he gave prominence at the beginning. The first part is bracketed between two references to the roaring lion (Amos 1:2; 3:8). Each of the subsections (apart from Amos 3:3-8) may be taken as a separate roar: the divine lion first denounces the sins of the Gentile world (Amos 1:3-2: 3) and then of the Israelite world, addressing first the southern kingdom of Judah (Amos 2:4, 5), Amos’s own home, then the northern kingdom of Israel (Amos 2:6-16), the people to whom he was sent, and ending by binding them together in a concluding oracle (Amos 3:1, 2). The lion metaphor, of course, speaks of judgment and the series of oracles serves to show at point after point the things which come under divine displeasure. Nevertheless, at this point the judgment is still a future threat, and in the subtlest possible way Amos blends the roar of the lion at the end into the voice of the prophet (Amos 3:8), his own voice calling out in God’s name to the people to heed before it is too late.

—J. A. Motyer 

Source: Motyer, J.A. The Message of Amos. The Bible Speaks Today. Downers Grove, IL:  InterVarsity Press, 1984.

Chapters 1 and 2 are Amos’s judgments against all of the nations, and Israel in particular, in their most condensed form. And then [chapters] 3-6 are, functionally, all the ways Israel has broken God’s covenant, and the promise and prophecy of a coming exile that will come at the hands of the Assyrians depending on when you date it, sometime in the future. And that actually happens. And then the last section is [chapters] 7-9, and it’s kind of more of the same in the sense that it’s a promise of coming destruction, but what’s unique about the last section is not only the ending, but what Amos does—it’s a series of visions. 

The plumbline is probably the most famous image from Amos and that comes at the very end in a series of five visions. And at the very last paragraph you get this message of good news, that’s coming from the line of David. 

But that’s the three sections: 1) the CliffsNotes of judgment, 2) you have the covenant unfaithfulness of Israel and the promise of exile, 3) and then his visions and the promise of restoration by the hand of King David.

—Spoken Gospel

Source: David Bowden and Seth Stewart in the Spoken Gospel podcast, “Amos: A Social Gospel?” published at spokengospel.com.

As Amos perceived the character of his God, he saw that the lion-roar of condemnation and judgment came only when the patience of mercy had long, but vainly, waited for repentance and amendment of life. This is the significance of the repeated phrase for three transgressions…and for four.[1] On the part of man, the cup of sinfulness has been filled to the brim; on the part of God, there has been no hasty action: the first transgression well merited divine wrath, but mercy waited and patience watched. One way of expressing this truth about God is to say that he never punishes the sinner except after prolonged personal observation and ample opportunity for repentance.[2] Another way of stating the same truth is to say that the face which God turns to the world is predominantly one of mercy, that wrath comes, when it comes at all, late and overdue, and, as the Bible permits us to say, accompanied by the tears of God over recalcitrant and impenitent sinners (cf. Luke 19:41, 42). The God of Amos is a God of patient moral providence.

[1] Amos 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 13; 2:1, 4, 6; cf. Job 33:14; Psalm 62:11; Proverbs 30:15, 18, 21; Hosea 6:2; Micah 5:5. Throughout, the idea behind the ascending numeral is that a complete count has been taken, and the result may be accepted with confidence.

[2] Cf. Genesis 6:5, 6; 11:5; 18:20, 21; Psalm 50:21; Ecclesiastes 8:11; Isaiah 30:18; 57:11; Luke 13:6-9; 20:9-13; Acts 17:30, 31; 2 Peter 3:8, 9, 15; Revelation 2:2, 9, 13, 19, etc.

—J. A. Motyer

Source: Motyer, J.A. The Message of Amos. The Bible Speaks Today. Downers Grove, IL:  InterVarsity Press, 1984.

Christians often quote Amos for its emphasis on social justice, and rightly so. Yet we must learn to handle this emphasis properly. Amos’s condemnation of Israel’s life of luxury and laziness at the expense of the poor should not be treated in a way that reduces the heart of Christianity merely to social ethics. The heart of Christianity is the gospel. 

The necessary societal implications of the gospel must not be confused with the gospel itself. Both are crucial; our challenge is to understand how mercy is integral to the Christian’s identity without reducing the entirety of the Christian message to doing acts of mercy. To see the gospel as a call merely to extend mercy to others without rooting this in the gospel’s call to receive God’s mercy toward us as sinners is to lose the gospel itself.

—David R. Helm

Source: Content adapted from the ESV Gospel Transformation Bible. This article first appeared on Crossway.org; used with permission.

From Bibles.net: What is the gospel? The gospel is the good news about Jesus, who he is and what he did for us through his death and resurrection. We have created a resource page to help you learn about the gospel.

Although these oracles condemn nations for their treatment of other nations and peoples, the moral principles upon which they are judged easily translate to us today. Consider the following specific judgments and reflect on your own life and temptation toward similar practices.

Damascus. The sin of Damascus seems to be its trampling upon the people of Gilead, treating them as nothing more than a pile of grain. How have you treated people as less than human? How have you trampled upon others?

Tyre. The sin of Tyre includes their failure to keep their word; they did not keep the promises they made to the nation of Edom. How have you failed to keep your word, your commitments, or your obligations? What promises have you broken?

Edom. Note the end of Amos 1:11. Edom is judged for the nation’s perpetual anger. How does anger manifest itself in your life? Where are you slow to forgive? How are you holding onto hurts against you? How are you growing bitterness in your heart?

Ammon. The nation of Ammon was so violent and vicious that they even “ripped open pregnant women” (Amos 1:13 NIV). How has violence taken root in your heart? Where do you revel in it? How has the violence in the world around you, in the media, or in entertainment developed a love of violence in you?

—Kristofer D. Holroyd

Source: Content taken from Joel, Amos, and Obadiah: A 12-Week Study © 2018 by Kristofer D. Holroyd. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Whether it was incorporating the idols and pagan practices of the nations around them, taking advantage of the weak and impoverished and believing such practice was not inconsistent with the worship, or simply using worship as an attempt to manipulate God, the Israelites consistently abused, misused, and polluted the worship of God. New Testament believers are tempted in many of the same ways, including lying to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:1–11) and showing favoritism to the wealthy (James 2:1–7). Indeed, the book of 1 Corinthians was written, in large part, to address abuses of the Christian worship service by God’s people in Corinth. When we see such abuses, our hearts should be stirred up with longing for the day when God’s people worship him perfectly in spirit and in truth (John 4:23–24).

. . .

Those who have heard the Word of God, that is, his law and his good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, are held to an even higher standard of accountability. Not only do they have the general knowledge of God from creation; they also have benefited by hearing directly from him through his Word about who he is and what he requires of humanity. Therefore, those who hear the Word of God and reject it are in danger of even greater judgment. 

—Kristofer D. Holroyd

Source: Content taken from Joel, Amos, and Obadiah: A 12-Week Study © 2018 by Kristofer D. Holroyd. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Past history cannot take the place of present spiritual and moral commitment. A stale testimony of what happened years ago is like a lesson in history. God looks for up-to-date commitment to himself (Amos 5:6), to moral values (Amos 5:14, 15), to personal and social ethics (Amos 5:24).

—J. A. Motyer

Source: Motyer, J.A. The Message of Amos. The Bible Speaks Today. Downers Grove, IL:  InterVarsity Press, 1984.

“Seek me and live” (Amos 5:4 NIV) he says. Seek God, not religion. … “Seek good, not evil, that you may live” (Amos 5:14 NIV). Isn’t it a strikingly powerful way of preaching true repentance to put these two texts alongside each other? 1) Seek the Lord and live. 2) Seek good and live. It guards us against both of the two obvious traps that people keep falling into when they play at repentance. Those of us who are godless repent by trying to do good without seeking God. Those of us who are religious repent by trying to turn to God without turning to good. And Amos will not have it! “Seek the Lord!” he cries; “Seek good,” he demands, “not evil, that you may live.” The quarrel Amos has with his generation is not their churchgoing statistics; it is what went on with the rest of the week. … When God says, “Seek good and not evil,” what is it that comes to your mind? Where does God’s Spirit prick your conscience? A relationship? A business deal? A way we have been talking and speaking to others? An attitude? A way we’ve been acting? Whatever it is, there’s no good hiding behind my religion at that point. It won’t blind God to what I am actually doing.

—Hugh Palmer

Source: Hugh Palmer, quoted from his message, “Seek Me and Live,” from his series The God Who Roars on the book of Amos, preached at St. Helen’s Bishopsgate on April 26, 1994.

The best advice I can give to everyone out there—those who are feeling complacent and apathetic all the way to those who are feeling guilty—the best thing I can say to you is the path toward more justice in your life, the path to getting more righteousness in your life, and more care for the poor in your life, is not forcing more social programs into your life and like “making yourself do it because you have to.” The path to embedding generosity into your life is to meditate on the generosity that’s been given to you through Jesus. … The more we meditate on what Jesus has done for us by lavishing his generosity on us in his incarnation, his life, his death, his resurrection, and his new creation, the more we will be marked by generosity and want to live that out and can’t help but live it out. Jesus has saved us; how can we not, then, love others?

—Spoken Gospel

Source: David Bowden and Seth Stewart in the Spoken Gospel podcast, “Amos: A Social Gospel?” published at spokengospel.com.